You've Got Blackmail
by Kara1626
Summary: Mac's been having some fun making good on a promise...Sequel to "Crossing the Line – As Usual". Warning: Contains spanking of an adult. Not your thing? Feel free to move on.


**You've Got Blackmail**

Sequel to _Crossing the Line – As Usual_. **Warning**: Contains spanking of an adult. Not your thing? Feel free to move on.

* * * * *

"Look at me."

Mac let out the breath she was holding and slowly raised her head. The Admiral stood just inches in front of her. The look on his face betrayed his frustration in spite of his best efforts to remain as neutral as possible until he had heard her side of the story. Mac held his gaze for a moment longer than was comfortable, then her eyes darted back to the floor. "How much trouble am I in, sir?" she asked in barely a whisper.

"If you know enough to ask that question, I think you know the answer," he replied quietly. He reached out and placed his hand gently under her chin and lifted it so that they were again face-to-face. "We'll work it out, ok?" he said so gently that Mac blushed, feeling ashamed for the first time in two weeks. She reminded him so much of a little girl standing in front of her angry daddy. He turned around to stare out the window and reminded himself that she was not a little girl – she was an adult who had acted like one and that he was furious with her. "Oh, Mac," he sighed, "What the hell were you doing?"

Mac bit her lip, but said nothing.

Even with his back turned to her, the Admiral suspected that she was struggling to maintain her composure. And in all honesty, that frustrated him more than anything else that had happened that day. He was pretty sure it was her stubborn pride – again – that had lead directly to the events of the day. And it was her stubborn pride that had forced him into the role of disciplinarian once again.

As he stared out the window at the absolutely perfect day on the other side, he found himself again questioning his decision to start taking a more hands-on approach to discipline in his unit. But the alternative far too often was less desirable, so he stayed the course. He wasn't about to lose either of them - Mac or Harm. And it was those times, like today, when they were so strongly pitted against each other in a struggle of wills that he could more easily slip into the father role than ever consider allowing the regs of the Navy to dictate appropriate punishment.

With another sigh, he turned around and looked at Mac. Her head was still down and he hoped it meant that she deeply regretted what she had done. But somehow, he knew better. "Sit down, Mac." She obeyed, and the Admiral settled into his own chair behind the desk. "Ok," he said, gathering as much authority as he could, "start at the beginning. And I want the _whole_ truth."

Mac hesitated, trying to decide where the beginning actually was. Was it really on the ship or was it somewhere long before? Instantly, she knew the answer, but decided that for the purposes of the conversation that was about to take place, the beginning was on the ship. It was the safest route to the inevitable end.

"Well, sir," she began hesitantly, "it started when Harm and I were on the Seahawk investigating Lt. Isaaks' sexual harassment claim. Congresswoman DeLong got under Harm's skin and he said some things he shouldn't have." Mac had decided there was no way she was going to go down without bringing Harm with her – this was his fault after all. She saw the Admiral's eyebrow raise and knew she'd made the right decision. She dared not smile, but she took a moment to revel in the fact that she'd gotten in one last blow. "For some reason, Capt. Ross decided let Harm off and not tell you what…"

"Mac," the Admiral interrupted with a warning tone. "Trying to dump Harm in the deep end isn't going to make me forget what happened today, so I'd strongly suggest you skip to the part of the story that actually involves you and leave the rest of that narrative alone."

"Yes sir," Mac said almost petulantly. "I felt that Harm had gotten away with murder, so I decided to have a little fun with him." There was no sense in trying to whitewash what she had done, so Mac decided to just put it all out there. "So for starters, I made him my personal slave for the rest of the trip."

"For starters?" the Admiral asked incredulously.

Mac grinned. "Well, yes sir."

"So…what happened today was not an isolated incident?" he asked, his chin jutting out dangerously.

"No sir," Mac admitted sheepishly.

The Admiral chewed on his lip for a moment staring daggers at the Marine-Major-turned-middle-schooler in front of him. "Continue."

"The day we got back, we picked up the Hamilton case…"

"The case where Harm lost half the files in his hard drive and ended up having to ask the judge for a continuance so that he could re-interview his two key witnesses?"

"Yes sir."

"Did you have anything to do with that?"

"No sir, but I _was_ the reason he came to the office one day during that trial wearing non-regulation slacks," Mac said, trying not to smile. Harm had been completely baffled when he woke up last Tuesday morning to find all of his dress trousers missing from his closet. He'd had to pull on a pair of Dockers and hope no one noticed.

The Admiral shook his head slowly, but decided he just didn't want to know how Mac could have had anything to do with Harm's wardrobe problems. "Go on," he said as he felt a headache coming on.

Mac grimaced as she remembered what happened next. "Then on Friday, the first day of opening arguments in the Nelson case…"

"The day Harm was an hour late because his car wouldn't start?"

"Yes sir," Mac said wishing Admiral Chegwidden would stop interrupting – this was hard enough already without him constantly stopping her flow of thought. "Well, his car wouldn't start because I'd stolen one of his spark plugs." Mac could honestly say that she'd never seen the look the Admiral was giving her before. It was a frightening mix of shock, anger, and was that…admiration?

Since he seemed to be finished interrupting, Mac quickly ran through the beginning of the current week. "On Monday, when Harm suddenly had no pens or pencils in his office and ended up being late to staff meeting because he was tearing his office apart looking for something to write with? All of his writing utensils were in my office. Then on Tuesday, when he got locked out of his office while he was in the head and had to call maintenance to let him in?"

"That was you too," Admiral Chegwidden said, clearly understanding where the rest of the story was headed. "Ok, let's skip to the end. What exactly was today's prank supposed to do?"

Mac looked sheepish again, but knew better than to not answer. "It was going to get him stuck in the elevator for a while."

"And I suppose the reason Harm let you get away with all of this was because he was afraid I would find out about what he did on the Seahawk." Mac nodded.

The Admiral shook his head in exasperation, stood up, walked around the desk and leaned against it in front of her. "Major MacKenzie, it seems to me that you've put an awful lot of effort into blackmailing your partner in the last week and a half. Did you really think that was a good use of time?"

"Yes sir?" Mac said, suddenly very unsure of herself.

He had to hand it to her – she was at least being honest. "Well," he said turning and picking up the phone, "this stops now." He punched a few numbers in the phone and waited for a moment. "Commander, get in here." Without waiting for an answer, he hung up.

The minute between the end of the phone call and when Harm knocked on the door stretched out forever for Mac as the Admiral glared at her unrelentingly and fear of her immediate future grew with each passing second. But Harm's arrival and subsequent interview made her wish she'd just left her threat open and not acted upon.

"Mr. Rabb," the Admiral began without introduction, "did you really allow Major MacKenzie to blackmail you because you were afraid I'd find out what happened on the Seahawk?"

Harm didn't have time to be surprised at the suddenness of the question or that the Admiral knew what had happened. "Yes sir," he answered, suddenly developing some fear of his own.

The Admiral stared him down for a long moment before speaking. "Commander, I'm going to say that you've been punished enough this time, but if you ever do anything like that again, believe me when I tell you that you will regret it. Understood?"

"Yes sir. Thank you sir," Harm answered, immediately relieved.

The Admiral gave Harm one more hard look before dismissing him. "That will be all, Commander. I need to deal with Major MacKenzie right now," he said turning his glare back to Mac. Harm made a very quick exit as the Admiral walked purposefully around his desk. Harm didn't have to stick around to know what was about to happen.

"Sarah," Mac looked up at the use of her Christian name. This wasn't good. "Do you think I should do anything other than take a paddle to you right now?"

She'd known all along that eventually it would come to this. She'd weighed the risk and decided it was well worth it to see Harm suffer a little bit. This was going to be bad, but she'd been preparing herself since she'd been ordered into the office an hour earlier when the Admiral had caught her repeatedly pushing the up and down buttons on the elevator. With a deep breath to steel herself, Mac shook her head, stood up and leaned over the desk.

The Admiral looked at her bent over for a moment before pulling a paddle out of the bottom drawer of his desk. He grinned in spite of himself. He had to admit, he did find some of what Mac had done highly entertaining, but there was no way he could let her get away with blackmailing her partner. He knew he had to spank her, and he flexed his shoulders as he moved behind her, remembering that he was supposed to be upset with her.

The spanking wasn't the worst Mac had gotten in recent memory, but it was no walk in the park either. The Admiral did a good job of letting her know that her behavior was unacceptable and when she returned to her office a few minutes after he'd finished, she decided against trying to sit down for a little while.

* * * * *

As expected, Harm paid Mac a visit at her apartment later that night.

"So," Harm said with a grin as he dished out Chinese food (organic, vegetarian Chinese food to be exact), "you stole my pants, you stole my spark plug, you stole my pens and pencils, you tried to trap me in an elevator, what was next?"

Mac grinned back. "I'm not telling. I may still need it someday."

Harm shook his head in amazement, "You're insane Mac. You know that, right?"

"And that knowledge, Mr. Rabb, should keep you from ever trying to get me back for any of this." Mac pushed noodles into her mouth, confident that she had won this battle. But her confidence was short-lived.

"There's something you should know," Harm said, stabbing his chopsticks into the bowl in front of him.

"What's that?" Mac asked around her own mouthful of food.

"Um, ok. Before I tell you this, you have to promise me something."

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

"Don't shoot the messenger."

Mac reluctantly agreed.

"The Admiral apparently figured out that something was going on with us, did a little investigating and called Capt. Ross."

Mac dropped her chopsticks into her half-full bowl. "When?"

"Yesterday." He immediately put his hands up to block to onslaught he was sure was coming. "I didn't know, I swear!" he said as Mac launched at him.

Mac studied Harm's face, decided he was telling the truth and backed off. "How long have you known he knew?" she asked settling back on the pillow she'd been propped against.

"He told me this afternoon after…well, you know."

Mac blushed, remembering clearly and painfully the events of the afternoon. After a minute of silent eating and contemplation, she finally spoke. "It's not going to matter how many times you and I go to battle. He's always going to win, isn't he?"

"Yup," Harm answered. The pair continued eating for a few more minutes before Harm put down his chopsticks again. "So Mac, I gotta know. How did you get my pants?"


End file.
